Mechanical Model of Cancer Cells and Its Application to Pathology

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K20888
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 13:Condensed matter physics and related fields
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Imai Masayuki 東北大学, 理学研究科, 教授 (60251485)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 鶴山 竜昭 公益財団法人放射線影響研究所, 分子生物科学部, 主任研究員 (00303842)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-07-30 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: がん細胞形態 / 腫瘍形態 / 力学モデル / ベシクル集合体

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The morphologies of the model cellular tissue has been investigate by experiments and a mechanical model based on membrane elasticity theory. The morphology of the model tissue is determined by the balance of adhesion force, surface tension, and bending elastic force. This mechanical model well describes typical model tissue morphologies obtained in the experiments. Using this mechanical model, we attempted to reproduce the morphology of a tumor. We succeeded in reproducing the typical tumor tissue of cervical cancer and the phagocytic phenomenon called cannibalism of cancer cells by the mechanical model. However, it was difficult to extract the characteristics of cancer cells that can be applied to pathological diagnosis. Currently, we are working on the extraction of the unique morphology of cancer cells by culturing cancer cells.

Free Research Field

ソフトマター物理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

がん細胞または腫瘍組織の形態からがんの病状を診断する病理診断は、今まで病理医の経験に大きく依存してきた。最近はAIを使った病理診断も行われているが、がんの機序との関連が不明であるためその精度には限界がある。そこでモデル細胞であるベシクル組織の形態を再現する力学モデルを導入して腫瘍形態とがんの機序をつなぐことを目指した。ある程度の腫瘍構造の再現は可能であるが、がんのエッセンスを取り出すにはさらなる研究が必要である。